PUBLISHING

NEWS CORP. TO ALLOW SHAREHOLDER VOTE ON POISON PILL EXTENSION Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation agreed to allow shareholders to vote on extending the company’s anti-takeover defense, settling a lawsuit and averting a trial set to begin April 24.

– Bloomberg News

RETAIL

MARTHA STEWART SHARES GAIN; IT WILL SELL FURNISHINGS AT MACY’S Shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia gained more than 12% yesterday on news that the company would sell a line of Martha Stewart-branded home furnishings at Federated Department Stores’s Macy’s division. The five-year agreement, which starts in 2007 and can be renewed, is in addition to a deal the design maven’s company has in place with Sears Holdings Corporation’s Kmart stores.

– Dow Jones Newswires

IN THE COURTS

FEDERAL PROSECUTORS WIN DELAY IN SPITZER CASE AGAINST GREENBERG Federal prosecutors won a delay in New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s civil fraud case against a former chairman of American International Group, Maurice Greenberg, after arguing that it might compromise a related criminal proceeding. New York State Supreme Court Judge Charles Ramos yesterday granted U.S. prosecutors’ request to postpone the questioning of 13 witnesses for 60 days.

– Bloomberg News

SKILLING TESTIMONY IS PUSHED TO MONDAY HOUSTON – Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron chief executive whose reputation for nurturing innovations that woke up the once-sleepy energy industry shattered along with the company, must wait until next week to provide much-awaited testimony in his fraud and conspiracy trial. “I’ve waited five years, I think I can wait another weekend,” Mr. Skilling said.

– Associated Press

IN BRIEF

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange will become the exclusive electronic trader of energy futures and options listed on the New York Mercantile Exchange … The board of Lehman Brothers Holdings voted to split the company’s shares … Morgan Stanley hired JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s global merger chief Robert Kindler as vice chairman of investment banking … Microsoft’s MSN Search was out of operation for much of the day yesterday, the victim of a computer hiccup the company has so far been unable to explain … Google and Discovery Communications signed a deal to make Discovery’s history, science, and travel video content available to consumers using Google’s satellite-imagery rich mapping service, Google Earth, in the latest entertainment-industry effort to bring television to the Web … Research In Motion, maker of BlackBerrys, posted fourth-quarter profit of $18.4 million. The company will add fewer new customers than analysts expected this quarter, sending the shares down.

– Bloomberg News, Dow Jones Newswires, and Associated Press